Okay, okay, let's see then... How about, "Naturally, I would have used a selection of the many splendidly painted figs I've done over the years, but I have a bad habit of nibbling the paint off and invariably swallowing them when I'm sitting around idle. I have none left and so I'm forced to use the unpainted figs seen in the photos below..."
So then, how Battle Systems' houses look on the tabletop...
(↑ If you ever need early 20th century Bavarians in gebirgstracht look no further than Tsuba Miniatures!)
↓ The chapel was made more traditional with metal bits found at the local sewing centre.
↓ Bottom floor of the two-storey townhouse in a 40K context. This is as small as the rooms get.
↓ 25mm-ish vs 32mm-ish inside the 'thatched cottage' set.
As is readily apparent, lately I tend to go for functional (with the emphasis on actual gaming) rather than the beautiful (the hobby skills approach). That being said, I think these little cardboard houses are directly responsible for breathing new life into my table setup, which was hopelessly barebones before I got them.
Back in the US I had a gigantic selection of all manner of beautiful and carefully made forest tiles, flocked stackable hills, all the usual nice stuff one accumulates after years of dedicated gaming and application of general hobbyist know-how... Unfortunately there was no way I could bring any of it over here with me. But I still find I always want to do some gaming... But I didn't want to have to build all that stuff again just to be forced to abandon it again someday.
I should probably mention those bushes while I'm at it... Japan is awash in hobby shops with all manner of beautiful trees for dioramas and train sets in every conceivable scale, but I quickly discovered that the domestic Japanese market has a tendency to gouge customers white, and this very much extends to hobby shops; you can expect to pay the equivalent of at least £15-20 for a pack of only two trees... Hardly practical for covering a whole table! I found the above crappy plastic foliage on ebay from a Chinese seller. I got the whole mass of bushes seen in the pics for around £3.75 with free shipping! I thought it'd be acceptable for the 40K games, but now that I think about it, it's kinda wonky for anything else. Still I have no qualms about chucking them in the bin should I be forced to leave the country, which is nice. However, the Battle Systems houses could easily be taken apart and packed flat for travel.
But apart from my specific little issues, regarding the Battle Systems houses, I'm extremely pleased with them! They were super-easy to put together and added instant atmosphere as soon as they hit the tabletop.
The fact that you can readily open them up and move figs inside the finished interiors is the icing on the cake; you can then put the roof back on and see little gun barrels protruding from the openable windows! They are certainly just the thing for games and interestingly the styling seems to work in many varied contexts. Since I vacillate between fantasy, modern, and SF, I went for the fantasy range of Battle Systems' buildings, because you can play SF games amongst old world terrain, but you can't play fantasy games amid SF buildings at all. (Well you
could but everyone would call you a nutter...)